Method and apparatus for defining a behavior region for a communication device

ABSTRACT

A portable phone is equipped with a position detector that detects the geographical position of the portable phone, and a telephone system may ring one or more land-based phones or portable phones according to the geographical position of the portable phone. One or more geographical regions are defined, with corresponding telephone parameters defined for each region. When a portable phone enters a defined region, exits a defined region, or changes between two defined regions, the function of one or more land-based phones or portable phones may change. The preferred embodiments thus allow changing the function of one or more other phones based on the self-detected geographical position of a portable phone. In this manner the convenience of using portable phones is greatly enhanced.

REFERENCE TO PARENT APPLICATION

This patent application is a divisional of the patent application“TELEPHONE SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SELECTIVELY RINGING ONE OR MORE LANDPHONES OR PORTABLE PHONES BASED ON THE SELF-DETECTED GEOGRAPHICALPOSITION OF A PORTABLE PHONE”, Ser. No. 09/759,784 filed by Bates et al.on Jan. 12, 2001 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,999,757, which is incorporatedherein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

This invention generally relates to telephone systems and morespecifically relates to portable phones.

2. Background Art

Since Alexander Graham Bell uttered those famous words “Mr. Watson—comehere —I want to see you”, the telephone has evolved into a necessity ofmodern living. Land-based telephone systems are the most ubiquitous, andhave been found in most homes and businesses in the United States formany decades. Recently, wireless phones have gained in popularity.Wireless phones include cellular phones, digital phones, satellitephones, etc. For the purpose of discussion herein, the term “portablephone” applies to any and all types of wireless phones, whether nowknown or developed in the future.

Known portable phones are like land-based phones in the respect thatthey ring when the number that is assigned to the portable phonereceives a call. Portable phones currently cannot affect the function ofother portable phones or of land-based phones. Modern life makes itdesirable for the location of a portable phone to affect how otherland-based phones or other portable phones function. For example, when auser of a portable phone takes the phone home, it may be desirable for acall to the portable phone to ring the user's home phone instead,thereby avoiding wireless charges during the call. Without a way for aportable phone to change the function of other phones based on itsgeographical position, the power of using portable phones will not fullybe realized.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

According to the preferred embodiments, a portable phone is equippedwith a position detector that detects the geographical position of theportable phone, and a telephone system may ring one or more land-basedphones or portable phones according to the geographical position of theportable phone. One or more geographical regions are defined, withcorresponding telephone parameters defined for each region. When aportable phone enters a defined region, exits a defined region, orchanges between two defined regions, the function of one or moreland-based phones or portable phones may change. The preferredembodiments thus allow changing the function of one or more other phonesbased on the self-detected geographical position of a portable phone. Inthis manner the convenience of using portable phones is greatlyenhanced.

The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will beapparent from the following more particular description of preferredembodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will hereinafter bedescribed in conjunction with the appended drawings, where likedesignations denote like elements, and:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a portable phone in accordance with the preferredembodiments;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of components in the portable phone of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing different regions that may be defined forthe portable phone of FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram showing the steps in defining one or moregeographical regions and in defining phone parameters for each definedgeographical regions;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing how a region may be dynamically defined inaccordance with the preferred embodiments;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram that shows one specific implementation ofmethod 400 of FIG. 4 for dynamically defining a region and definingphone parameters for each defined geographical region;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a sample configuration in accordance withthe preferred embodiments that allows selectively ringing two land-basedtelephones depending on the self-detected geographical position of aportable phone, with the portable phone at home;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of sample phone parameters for the sampleconfiguration of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of the sample configuration of FIG. 7 with theportable phone between home and work;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of sample phone parameters for the sampleconfiguration of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of the sample configuration of FIG. 7 withthe portable phone at work;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of sample phone parameters for the sampleconfiguration of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of a method for a portable phone to sendmessages when defined regions are entered and exited;

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of a step for a telephone system to maintainphone parameters for named regions as entering region and exiting regionmessages are received from a portable phone (such as when steps 1330 and1350 of FIG. 13 are performed);

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram of one specific implementation of step 1410 ofFIG. 14 in accordance with the preferred embodiments;

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of a method for a portable phone to transmitgeographical location information to a telephone company network;

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of a method for a telephone company network toprocess the geographical location information transmitted in step 1620of FIG. 16 to determine whether the portable phone exits or enters adefined region; and

FIG. 18 is a flow diagram of a method for assigning a phone number to ageographical region and assigning one or more phones to the assignedphone number, and for ringing an assigned phone only when the assignedphone is within the defined geographical region.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Throughout history, the telephone has been an important device forcommunicating the need for emergency services. The phrase “Operator, getme the police!” has been used in many Hollywood movies. Land-basedtelephone systems have evolved to include emergency systems known as“911” systems that catalog the location of each telephone along with itstelephone number. Modern land-based telephone systems communicate anidentifier when placing a call, often referred to as a “caller ID”. Whena person calls 911 from a land-based phone, the 911 computer systemautomatically detects the caller ID, and displays the caller's locationfrom its database. This allows emergency vehicles to be dispatched evenif the caller is unable to speak or identify his or her location.

Retrieving the location of a land-based phone when a person calls 911 isa simple task because the location of the phone does not change overtime. However, with portable phones, there is currently no “911”equivalent system that allows emergency vehicles to be dispatched to theportable phone's location, because the location constantly changes. Inone case in South Dakota, a woman ran her car into a ditch during ablizzard. She called the police on her cellular phone and said she hadno idea where she was located. Over the next several hours, she calledin several times for a few minutes at a time (to preserve her phone'sbattery life) while emergency services personnel worked with the cellphone company to locate the woman's phone based on a well-knowntechnique known as “triangulation” of her cell phone signal. Afterseveral hours, her location was identified with enough certainty toallow emergency workers to find her. While this outcome was a happy one,it is clear that many people who have emergencies do not have hours towait for help to arrive. This case illustrates the need for a 911-typeof system for portable phones. If a person is having a heart attack,that person may well be dead in a few minutes if medical help is notreceived immediately. For this reason the Federal CommunicationsCommission has mandated that portable phone providers implement anEnhanced 911 (E911) system by the end of the year 2001.

One way to implement an enhanced 911 system for portable phones is toplace a position detector in each phone that communicates the positionof the phone to the portable phone service provider. One popular type ofposition detector is a Global Positioning System (GPS) detector thatdetects its geographical position based on signals received from severalsatellites. A press release dated Aug. 10, 1998 atwww.sirf.com/as_pr13.htm states that Nokia, one of the leadingmanufacturers of portable phones, invested in the GPS technology of SiRFTechnology, Inc. to allow putting SiRF's GPS detectors into Nokia phonesin order to meet the FCC mandate for an E911 system.

While the prior art suggests placing a GPS detector in a portable phone,this teaching is for the purpose of implementing an E911 system, asdescribed above. An E911 system can be implemented by communicating thelocation of the phone to the cell phone provider without changing theapparent function of the portable phone or other phones. The preferredembodiments described herein use the position information from anon-board position detector (e.g., GPS detector) to change the functionof the portable phone or other phones according to one or moregeographical regions defined by the user. In this manner a portablephone may make other phones selectively ring or not ring withoutintervention by a user as the position of the portable phone enters orexits a defined region.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a portable phone 100 in accordance with thepreferred embodiments includes a case 105. Within or attached to case105 are antenna 110, keypad 120, display 130, speaker 140, andmicrophone 150. Antenna 110 is a standard antenna as is known in the artfor allowing portable phone 100 to communicate with its service providerin placing and receiving calls. Keypad 120 includes the traditional tennumerals, star, and pound key found on most telephone keypads. Inaddition, keypad 120 includes a “Send” key for placing a call, an “End”key for terminating a call, a “Clear” key for clearing a portion of thedisplay 130, a “Menu” key for displaying a menu on the display 130, uparrow and down arrow keys for scrolling through menus and lists on thedisplay 130, a “Mem” key (short for “memory”) that displays informationstored in phone 100, and an “ABC” key that changes the ten numeral keysfrom numeric input to alpha character input. It is well known in the artthat the 2 through 0 numeral keys on standard telephones include most ofthe alphabet characters. For the sake of clarity in the drawing, thealpha characters associated with numeral keys 2 through 0 are not shown.By pressing the “ABC” key, the phone enters an alpha input mode thatallows inputting text information into phone 100 via keypad 120 that canbe displayed on display 130. The keys on keypad 120 in FIG. 1 are shownby way of example, and many different keys not explicitly shown may besubstituted or added within the scope of the preferred embodiments.

Display 130 is preferably a backlit liquid crystal display (LCD) thatincludes multiple lines of alphanumeric display capability. Speaker 140is a small, low-power speaker as is known in the art for portablephones. In addition, microphone 150 is a small, low-power microphone asis known in the art for portable phones.

The components of FIG. 1, except for case 105, are shown in the blockdiagram of FIG. 2. The keypad 120 and microphone 150 are input devices,the display 130 and speaker 140 are output devices, and antenna 110 isboth an input and an output device. Portable phone 100 includes aprocessor 210 that is coupled to the antenna 110, keypad 120, display130, speaker 140, and microphone 150. In addition, processor 210 is alsocoupled to a position detector 220 and to a memory 230. Positiondetector 220 is an electronic device that provides its geographicalposition to processor 210, preferably in longitude and latitudecoordinates. In the preferred embodiments, position detector 220 is aglobal positioning system (GPS) detector. Memory 230 may include anycombination of volatile and non-volatile memory, and preferably includesone or more defined geographical regions 240. Processor 210 takes inputfrom keypad 120, microphone 150, position detector 220, antenna 110, andmemory 230, and generates appropriate output on display 130, speaker140, antenna 110, and memory 230. Note that the block diagram of FIG. 2does not include many components or features known in prior art portablephones. FIG. 2 is a simple diagram showing only the most commonly-knowncomponents and features that allow a complete description of thepreferred embodiments of the present invention. Of course, portablephone 100 could also include any component or feature that is known inthe art in addition to those shown within the scope of the preferredembodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates different geographical regions that a user may wantto define in order to alter the function of a telephone system accordingto whether or not a portable phone is in a defined region. For example,we assume that an architect is the user of a portable phone inaccordance with the preferred embodiments, and wants to program herphone for the five different regions shown in FIG. 3: home, church,office, job site, and theater. These regions are shown by way ofexample, and the preferred embodiments expressly extend to thedefinition of any suitable geographical region.

Referring to FIG. 4, a method 400 shows the steps in defining regionsand setting phone parameters for each region. First, a geographicalregion is defined (step 410). Next, phone parameters are set for thisnewly-defined region (step 420). Method 400 is repeated for each regionthat needs to be defined, thus creating phone parameters for each regionthat are independent of the phone parameters of other regions. Once thedesired geographical regions and the corresponding phone parameters aredefined, a telephone system will function differently according to thedetected geographical position of a portable phone.

Step 410 in FIG. 4 allows the user to define a geographical region ofinterest. There are numerous ways for the user to define a geographicalregion. As stated above, the preferred implementation of positiondetector 220 in FIG. 2 is a GPS detector. If position detector 220 is aGPS detector, the geographical region must be defined in GPScoordinates. With the proliferation of GPS detectors, it may well bethat a user may be able to consult a database to retrieve GPScoordinates for a given location. For example, a mapping company mayprovide a web site that provides GPS coordinates for any selected regionon a map. A user could then enter these coordinates into portable phone100 using keypad 120 and display 130 to define a region. In thealternative, a company may offer a service that allows a user to callthe company using the portable phone 100, which then communicates to theservice an identifier for the region of interest (such as an address),and the service could then download GPS coordinates for the region ofinterest into portable phone 100. Another way for a user to define ageographical region in step 410 of FIG. 4 takes advantage of theon-board position detector 220 within portable phone 200 to allow a userto dynamically define a region of interest. The dynamic creation of ageographical region of interest is explained below with reference toFIG. 5. The preferred embodiments expressly extend to all mechanisms andmethods for defining a geographical region, whether currently known ordeveloped in the future.

We assume for the sake of illustration that the architect's office inFIG. 3 is located within an L-shaped office building, the outline ofwhich is shown as 510 in FIG. 5. The architect can dynamically definethe geographical region corresponding to her office building by placingthe portable phone in a menu-driven “region definition” mode thatprompts the user to perform certain actions to define a region. When the“region definition” mode is entered, the display 130 prompts the user totravel to the location of a corner (i.e., boundary point) of the regionand press a key (such as the # key). In the example of FIG. 5, we assumethat the user puts her portable phone 100 into “region definition” mode,then walks to point A that corresponds to a corner of building 510. Theuser then presses the # key, which causes processor 210 to read thecurrent geographical position of the portable phone from the positiondetector 220 and store this coordinate in memory 230. The user thentravels to point B, and presses the # key again, causing the processor210 to get a new position from position detector 220 and store thecoordinate in memory 230. The user then travels to points C, D, E and F,pausing each time to press the # key to store the current position as aboundary point of the region. After pressing the # key at point F, theuser then presses another key (such as the “End” key) to instruct theprocessor 210 to compute a region based on the entered corner points.Processor 210 takes each boundary point and effectively “connects thedots” to generate a region of interest. By allowing a user todynamically define regions of interest using the position detector 220within the portable phone 100, the user does not need to access anyposition information in any database when defining regions of interest.

Note that a GPS detector reading is only accurate to within a specifiedtolerance. For this reason, after constructing the region 510 in FIG. 5,the region may be enlarged by the amount of the tolerance, as shown as520 in FIG. 5. Expanding the region by the amount of allowable toleranceassures that any reading taken within the building will be detected aslying within the defined region.

Another method for dynamically defining a region is to press a key thatcauses the processor 210 to get the current position from positiondetector 220, and then press one or more keys to specify a radius fordefining a circular region. This is a much simpler way of defining aregion if a circle can adequately approximate that region that needs tobe defined. For example, if a person lives in a house, they maydynamically define a home zone by going to the approximate center of thehouse, pressing a key to enter the position at that point, and enteringa radius of 50 feet. This is a much simpler way of defining a region ifa circle can adequately approximate that region that needs to bedefined.

Referring now to FIG. 6, a method 600 illustrates one specificimplementation of method 400 of FIG. 4 that allows a user to dynamicallydefine a region of interest as explained above with reference to FIG. 5,and to define phone parameters for the region of interest. First, thephone display prompts for boundary points of the region (step 610). Theuser then goes to a boundary point (step 620) and presses a key on thephone to store the boundary point (step 630). The phone then stores thecurrent position read from the position detector 220 as a boundary point(step 640). If there are more boundary points to define (step 650=YES),steps 610–640 are repeated until all boundary points have been entered(step 650=NO). At this point a different key is pressed on the phone tocompute the region from the stored boundary points (step 660). The phonecomputes the region by connecting the boundary points (step 670). Thephone then displays a menu of phone parameters to the user (step 680).The user selects the phone parameters for the newly-defined region usingthe menu and keypad 120. Note that for this particular implementation,steps 610–670 correspond to step 410 in FIG. 4, and steps 680–690corresponds to step 420 in FIG. 4. Method 600 thus allows a user todynamically define a region, then set the corresponding phone parametersfor that region.

Note that the term “phone parameters” is a broad term that encompassesany information that may affect the ringing of phones or routing ofcalls based on the geographical location of a portable phone. Forexample, phone parameters may include an indication of land-based phonesto ring when a portable phone is within or outside of a defined region.Phone parameters may include an indication of whether to ring a singlephone or multiple phones when a portable phone is within or outside of adefined region. Phone parameters may include an indication of whether toring a portable phone that is within or outside of a defined region whena land-based phone or another portable phone within the region rings.These examples are provided to simply illustrate that the term “phoneparameters” includes any information that may affect the ringing orrouting of calls based on the self-detected geographical location of aportable phone.

FIG. 7 shows one sample configuration that is useful in illustrating theconcepts of the preferred embodiments. We continue with our exampleabove relating to an architect who lives in a home 710 and works in anoffice 730. At home, the architect has a home phone 712 that is aland-based phone that is coupled via a wire connection 714 to atelephone company network 740, as is known in the art. Similarly, thearchitect has a work phone 732 at her office 730 that is also aland-based phone that is coupled via a wire connection 734 to thetelephone company network 740. Note that telephone company network 740includes a call router 750 that ring phones and routes calls accordingto the geographical position of a portable phone 100, shown in FIG. 7 tobe at home 710. Telephone company network 740 is also coupled to amechanism for communicating with portable phones, shown in FIG. 7 as acellular phone tower 760. The specific example of FIG. 7 assumes that atelephone company network 740 that provides local telephone service isalso a service provider for portable phones. This assumption is made forthe purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiments, which expresslyextend to any and all configurations and combinations of telephonenetworks and companies that are needed to communicate with bothland-based telephones and portable telephones.

Suitable phone parameters 800 for the example of FIG. 7 are shown inFIG. 8. We assume for this simple example that a region is defined thatcorresponds to the architect's home 710, and a separate region isdefined that corresponds to the architect's office 730. Phone parameters800 shown that each defined region has a list of allowed phone numbersthat are allowed to be affected by the presence or absence of portablephone 100 within a region. Each region also has a list of current phonenumbers whose operation may be affected by the presence or absence ofportable phone 100 within a region. For the simple example in FIGS. 7and 8, we assume the following: portable phone 100 has a telephonenumber of 855-1234; home phone 712 has a telephone number of 555–0011;and work phone 732 has a telephone number of 555–2233. The entry inphone parameters 800 for home indicates that both the home phone numberand the portable phone number are allowed numbers, and that both ofthese are current numbers, because the portable phone is at home. Forthis specific example, we assume when the portable phone is at home 710that a call to either the home phone 710 or the portable phone 100 willcause the call router 750 to ring both phones 712 and 100, and the callrouter 750 will then connect the call to whichever phone is answeredfirst. Of course, other variations are also possible within the scope ofthe preferred embodiments. For example, when the portable phone 100 isat home 710, the call router 750 could route calls to the portable phone100 to the home phone 712 without the portable phone 100 ringing, whilethe call router routes calls to the home phone 712 only to the homephone, and not to the portable phone 100. These types of variationscould be easily programmed into the phone parameters that dictate thefunction of the portable phone and other phones according to theself-detected geographical position of the portable phone.

Note that the phone parameters 800 shown in FIG. 8 for the defined“work” region show that both the work phone number and the portablephone number are allowed numbers, but only the work phone number is acurrent number because the portable phone 100 is not at work 730. We nowassume that the architect leaves home 710 with the portable phone 100 tobegin the journey to work 730. This situation is shown in FIG. 9, wherethe portable phone 100 is located somewhere between home 710 and work730. Phone parameters 800 in FIG. 10 now indicate that the phone numberfor the portable phone (855-1234) is not a current number for either thehome region or the work region, because the portable phone 100 is notlocated within either of these regions. As a result, the call router 750will route a call to the home phone 712 to only the home phone; willroute a call to the work phone 732 only to the work phone; and willroute a call to the portable phone 100 only to the portable phone. Thus,the operation of the telephone system for the specific example in FIG. 9is the same as in the prior art when the portable phone 100 is not inany defined region.

Referring now to FIG. 11, the architect now arrives at work 730 with herportable phone 100. Because the portable phone 100 is now within adefined zone (i.e., work) where it is an allowed number, the portablephone number 855-1234 is added to the current number list for the workregion, as shown in FIG. 12. The call router 750 will now ring bothportable phone 100 and work phone 732 when a call is received for eitherof these phones, and will connect the call to the phone that is answeredfirst. Of course, variations are possible as discussed above that allowdifferent functions according to the presence or absence of portablephone 100 in any defined region.

This simple example in FIGS. 7–12 illustrates the general principle ofaffecting the operation of a telephone system according to thegeographical position of a portable phone. The preferred embodimentsexpressly extend to any change in the operation of a telephone system asa result of the self-detected geographical position of a portable phone.Suitable changes in operation include (without limitation) selectivelyringing or not ringing one or more land-based phones or portable phonesbased on the geographical position of a portable phone. Of course, otherchanges in operation are also within the scope of the preferredembodiments.

There are different ways for a telephone system to handle changes in aportable phone's geographical position within the scope of the preferredembodiments. In one specific example, the portable phone contains thedefined geographical regions, and the phone simply reports to thetelephone company network 750 whenever the portable phone enters orexits a defined region. Referring to FIG. 13, a method 1300 shows thesteps performed by a portable phone to report changes to itsself-detected geographical position as it enters and exits definedgeographical regions. Method 1300 begins by determining from a positiondetector in a portable phone the geographical location of the phone(step 1310). If the phone exits a defined region (step 1320=YES), theportable phone sends a message to its communication tower (e.g., tower760 of FIGS. 7, 9 and 11) that it has exited a defined region (step1330) while identifying to the tower the name of the exited region. Ifthe phone enters a defined region (step 1340=YES), the portable phonesends a message to its communication tower that it has entered a definedregion (step 1350) while identifying to the tower the name of theentered region. In this manner the portable phone reports as it entersor exits defined regions. Note that method 1300 imposes upon theportable phone the task of keeping track of the boundaries of a region.The telephone company network 740 only has to keep track of names ofregions without having any idea where these regions lie. Note also thatif two regions share a boundary, and the portable phone crosses theboundary, the portable phone will send two messages, one to indicate theexit from one region and the other to indicate the entrance to the otherdefined region. Of course, these two messages could be combined into asingle message within the scope of the preferred embodiments.

Referring to FIG. 14, a method 1400 represents the function of atelephone company network that receives the exiting region and enteringregion messages from method 1300 in FIG. 13. The call router (e.g., 750of FIGS. 7, 9 and 11) maintains phone parameters for the named regionsaccording to the entering region and exiting region messages receivedfrom the portable phone (step 1410). For the simple example of FIGS.7–12, the call router simply looks to the current number list for theregion to determine which phones to ring when a call is received on thehome or work numbers. If the portable phone is listed as a currentnumber, it will ring in addition to ringing the land-based phone thatcorresponds to the dialed number.

One specific implementation for step 1410 in FIG. 14 is shown as method1410 in FIG. 15. We assume that this method 1410 commences when an eventis received by the telephone company network that needs to be processed(step 1510). If the event is a call to a number (step 1512=YES), and ifphone parameters are set (or defined) for the called number (step1540=YES), the call is routed according to the phone parameters for thisnumber (step 1544). If no phone parameters are set for the called number(step 1540=NO), the call is routed to the number called, as is normallydone in the prior art (step 1542). If the event is not a call to anumber (step 1512=NO), method 1410 checks to see if the event is an“enter a region” event (step 1520). For the example of FIG. 13, an“enter a region” event occurs when a portable phone sends an enteringregion message to its tower, as occurs in step 1350. If the event is an“enter a region” event (step 1520=YES), we see if the presence of theportable phone in this region affects the phone parameters for thisregion (step 1522). If not (step 1522=NO), method 1410 exits. If thepresence of the portable phone in this region affects the phoneparameters (step 1522=YES), the phone parameters for this region arealtered (step 1524) to change the way that a call is routed due to thepresence of the portable phone in the region.

If the event is not an “enter a region” event (step 1520=NO), we nextlook to see if the event is an “exit the region” event (step 1530). Forthe example of FIG. 13, an “exit a region” event occurs when a portablephone sends an exiting region message to its tower, as occurs in step1330. If the evens is not an “exit the region” event (step 1530=NO), theevent is some other event (such as a normal event that the telephonecompany network would handle in the prior art), and the phone systemperforms normal event processing (step 1532) as would be normally donein the prior art. If the event is an “exit the region” event (step1530=YES), we see if the absence of the portable phone in this regionaffects the phone parameters for this region (step 1534). If not (step1534=NO), method 1410 exits. If the absence of the phone in the regionjust exited affects the phone parameters for the region just exited(step 1534=YES), the phone parameters for the region just exited arealtered (step 1536). Method 1410 as illustrated in FIG. 15 thus altersthe phone parameters as a portable phone enters a defined region andexits a defined region, thereby changing the way a call router (e.g.,call router 750) rings phones and connects calls.

The methods in FIGS. 13–15 assume that the portable phone keeps track ofthe defined regions, and simply sends messages to the telephone companynetwork as the portable phone detects from its internal position sensorthat it enters or exits a defined region. As stated above, this approachrelieves the telephone company network of the task of tracking thelocation of the portable phone and determining whether the presentlocation of the portable phone is within or without its defined regions.An alternative method of accomplishing similar function is to have theportable phone simply report its geographical position periodically, andto have the regions defined within the telephone company network. Thecall router could then alter how telephones are rung and how calls arerouted according to the position of the portable phone when compared tothe defined regions and their corresponding phone parameters. Thisalternative method is represented in FIGS. 16 and 17.

A method 1600 for a portable phone in accordance with the preferredembodiments begins by determining from the position detector thegeographical location of the portable phone (step 1610). Thegeographical location information is then transmitted to the tower (step1620). In this manner the telephone company network coupled to the towercan track the movement of the portable phone, and can determine whetherthe ringing of a phone or routing of a call should be altered due to thepresence or absence of a portable phone in any defined region.

A method 1700 shows the steps performed by the telephone company networkwhen it receives the geographical location of a portable phone from step1620 in FIG. 16. This configuration assumes that the call router knowsthe geographical boundaries for each defined region, and can thus trackwhen a portable phone enters or exits any defined region. If thegeographical location of a portable phone indicates that it has exited adefined region (step 1710=YES), the phone parameters for the exitedregion are then updated to reflect that the portable phone is no longerpresent within the exited region (step 1720). If the geographicallocation of a portable phone indicates that it has entered a definedregion (step 1730=YES), the phone parameters for the entered region areupdated to reflect that the portable phone is present within the enteredregion (step 1740). In this manner the call router keeps track of thedefined regions, and updates the phone parameters for each region asportable phones enter or exit each defined region. The call router thenrings phones and routes calls based on the information contained withinthe phone parameters for each defined region. In this manner, one ormore land-based phones and/or portable phones may be selectively rung ornot rung depending on the self-detected geographical position of one ormore portable phones.

Referring to FIG. 18, a method 1800 includes the steps for assigning atelephone number to a geographical location, and answering a call basedon whether or not there are any assigned phones within that region.First, a phone number is assigned to a defined geographical region (step1810). Next, one or more portable phones are assigned to thegeographical region (step 1820). When the assigned phone number iscalled (step 1830=YES), method 1800 determines whether there are anyassigned phones in the assigned region (step 1840). If so (step1840=YES), all assigned phones in the assigned region are rung (step1860), and the first one to answer the call is connected to take thecall. If there are no assigned phones in the assigned region (step1840=NO), a voice message is provided (step 1850) to inform the callerthat there are no assigned phones in the region they called. In thismanner a caller may be connected to any assigned phone so long as theassigned phone is within the assigned geographical region. If anassigned phone is not within the assigned geographical region, it doesnot answer the call.

Note that a variation of method 1800 within the scope of the preferredembodiments is to have the voice message of step 1850 provide a voicemenu to the caller that allows the caller to press one or more keys onthe caller's telephone to connect to an assigned phone that is theclosest to the assigned region even though there are no assigned phonesin the assigned region. This feature would be very useful in a varietyof applications. For a security example where a Security Supervisorneeds to have one of his personnel investigate a problem, this featurewould allow the Security Supervisor to automatically call a portablephone that is closest to the assigned geographical region in the eventthat there are no assigned phones in the assigned geographical region.

The present invention provides enhanced functionality for a telephonesystem by allowing the self-detected position of a portable phone toaffect the ringing and routing of calls to one or more land-based orportable phones as the portable phone travels between definedgeographical regions. This changing function is programmable by theuser, and causes the phone system to automatically operate in apre-programmed way as a portable phone enters and exits definedgeographical regions. The result is a telephone system that is much moreuser-friendly, adapting itself to the programmed needs of the userautomatically as a portable phone changes location.

One skilled in the art will appreciate that many variations are possiblewithin the scope of the present invention. Thus, while the invention hasbeen particularly shown and described with reference to preferredembodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the artthat these and other changes in form and details may be made thereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A method for dynamically defining a region for a portable phone thatincludes an internal position detector, the method comprising: (1)placing the portable phone in a dynamic region definition mode; (2)moving the portable phone to a first boundary point; (3) storing thefirst boundary point as a boundary point for the region as detected bythe internal position detector; (4) repeating acts (2) and (3) until alldesired boundary points have been entered; and (5) computing a region byconnecting the boundary points.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein act (3)is performed in response to the user selecting a store boundary pointfunction on the portable phone.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein thestore boundary point function is selected by a user pressing at leastone key on the portable phone.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein act (C)is performed in response to the user selecting a compute region functionon the portable phone.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the computeregion function is selected by the user pressing at least one key on theportable phone.
 6. A method for deploying computing infrastructure,comprising integrating computer readable code into a computing system,wherein the code in combination with the computing system is capable ofperforming the method of claim
 1. 7. A tangible, computer-readablesignal bearing medium bearing computer-executable instructions forperforming the method of claim
 1. 8. A portable phone comprising: aninternal position detector; a dynamic region definition mechanism thatallows dynamically defining a region for the portable phone using theinternal position detector by a user of the portable phone performingthe following acts: (1) placing the portable phone in a dynamic regiondefinition mode to activate the dynamic region definition mechanism; (2)moving the portable phone to a first boundary point; (3) storing thefirst boundary point as a boundary point for the region; (4) repeatingsteps (2) and (3) until all desired boundary points have been entered;and (5) computing a region by connecting the boundary points.
 9. Theportable phone of claim 6 wherein act (3) is performed in response tothe user selecting a store boundary point function on the portablephone.
 10. The portable phone of claim 7 wherein the store boundarypoint function is selected by a user pressing at least one key on theportable phone.
 11. The portable phone of claim 6 wherein act (C) isperformed in response to the user selecting a compute region function onthe portable phone.
 12. The portable phone of claim 9 wherein thecompute region function is selected by the user pressing at least onekey on the portable phone.